


Birthday Party

by empty_battlefield



Series: A Slice of Sadstuck [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Bipolar Disorder, Birthday Party, Blind Character, Blind Sollux Captor, Blindness, Chemicals, Class Differences, Disabled Character, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Multi, Wriggling Day, cognitive disability
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-05 01:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10294313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empty_battlefield/pseuds/empty_battlefield
Summary: You're Sollux Captor, which means you're surrounded by freaks--your hysterically incoherent brother, your emotionally fragile father--as well as an array of strange friends, who are crazy enough to throw you a birthday celebration after you come home from the hospital.Before the freak accident that left you completely blind, you never thought you'd be one of them.





	1. The Hospital

**Author's Note:**

> So...I began this to fulfill a request on how sollux went blind, but then it turned into a full-blown three part story. Oops.
> 
> This can be read alone, but it occurs after Of Cats and Computers and before Honey Nut Cheerios. 
> 
> Much thanks to NovaStars42.  
> Enjoy!

"You thsleeping, Thol?"

Reclined on a bed of fluffy hospital pillows, you turn your head towards your brother's voice. He could have easily been right. Like a 24/7 sleeping mask, the thick, clean bandage was tightly bound round your head and covered your eyes. What’s left of them, anyway. The doctors have told you that you don't really have much left behind the bandages. 

"No, I'm still awake," you reply. To prove it, you pick up a fork and stab a piece of whatever meat was on the lunch tray in front of you. You're getting more confident doing that now. You don't know exactly what you've been eating this past week—but you've only been blind for eight days, so you can’t expect the rest of your senses to catch up until later. 

Mituna is munching on right beside you. The nurses here have taken to bringing out two trays during your mealtimes, without anyone asking them to. He leaves the little hospital room almost as infrequently as you do. Hell, maybe you've even left to go to the bathroom more times than he has. 

You hear Mituna eating voraciously. You have barely picked at your mystery meat, but he was marathoning through his entire tray. You pretend to chastise him, "Mituna, dude, _slow down_."

He is far too excited for that. "Thol, you're going home today!!" he exclaims, digging more into his jello. 

"Oh. Yeah, I almost forgot about that," you reply.

Mituna gasps rather theatrically. "Forgot?"

"I don't know, yeah," you reply, abandoning the meat, and mixing up your own jello—although you have no appetite to eat it. Honestly, you had kind of blocked the thought of going back home out of your mind. You don't really know what you're supposed to expect when you get there. "Do you want this?" you say, holding the jello cup in his general direction.

"Yes."

You hold it out for him, and he doesn't take it. You repeat irritatedly, "Mituna. Do you want this or not?"

"No," he says, and you groan in aggravation. "Fluidsth," he says, and you apologize in your head. Even he knows you need them, now they you've been off the IV drip for a few hours now. Although you're not exactly sure if Mituna knows what your IV drip _does_. You laugh. "You're worse than a doctor. Or Dad," you say, just as the very man walks into the room.

"Thsii!!" Mituna exclaims, and you hear him clamber to his feet and squeeze the breath out of your tall, slender father. 

"Ah—hi Tuna," Psii says. He seems a little irritated, which you see as the red flag of an impending manic funk. You are wondering what it was this time—the rude coffee guy behind the counter at Nitram's, unappreciative people at work, some earnest idiot on the train. "How are you? How'sth Thol?"

"Good, good!" he replies, giddy.

"Thollux, are you finished eating?" Psii asks, stepping closer to your bed.

"Yeah, I think so," you reply. Your appetite has given up. You take jello off the tray though, mixing it up absently with your spoon. 

"Mituna, can you take these traysth back to the nursthe'th thstation?" he asks. "I'm gonna talk to your brother a minute, juthst the two of usth, okay?" 

"OK!" Mituna agrees happily. He picks up the two trays and bounds out of the room.

Psii sits beside you, in Mituna's chair. Your father’s ego is a mosaic—half steel, half glass. If you try to punch through it, you’ll either break your hand or cut your knuckles on the shards. "How are you feeling?" he asks. 

"OK," you respond flatly. "What's up?"

"Nothing," he says, and that surprises you, since with Psii it’s never _nothing_ , this is usually his cue to start venting. Instead he asks, "You thstill got a headache?"

"Yeah. But I'm alright," you answer. You're sure that Psii will open up eventually. That's your job in this family—to listen to Psii's tribulations and respond in the way you know you're supposed to, with _don't worry, he was just an ass, we appreciate you, that really sucks._

"Tho you're alright if everyone comesth over tomorrow?" he asks. "It'sth OK if you aren't."

Your own birthday party—another thing you had almost forgotten about. Your friends, Jade and John, had found out that trolls never celebrated their wriggling days, and that meant you had never had a birthday party. The two dorks had spent a whole month planning it. They were so excited. It would let them and everyone down if you cancelled tomorrow. So you say with a tight smile, "No, the party's still on. It's only a handful of people, anyway."

Psii breathes out a tense sigh through closed lips. Perhaps he was restraining whatever was bugging him. "That'sth good," he says. "Justht curiousth—were you planning to invite Ampora'sth thson? Eridan?"

You would have widened your eyes and raised your brows if moving any skin in that area weren't still so painful. "Um—I mean, I guess I can call him, and ask if he wants to come."

"Good," Psii says. "I can call him for you, if you're too tired to." You nod, noncommittal. Talking to Eridan would be awkward, considering what happened eight days ago. A tense silence follows, and you think Psii is aware of this fact. You know you should say something to your father, but can't find the strength to do so. 

There is an awkward silence. "Oh, Gog, Thol..." you hear your father say. His voice is cracked and broken, not annoyed. You hear his breath waver, his throat hitch—

—and it's starting to seem like Psii's _not_ manically irritated at all—

—and Psii chokes out his first sob.

"I'm tho thorry, Thollux," he cries. "I'm an awful father, thisth isth all my fault, I should have never let you take that job—oh Gog—Everything I've put you and Tuna through, I've ruined your entire livesth—and now thisth. I've only ever made thingsth tough for you, with me and my health problemsth—what kind of father doesth that make me?"

You don't think a _don't worry, he was just an ass, we appreciate you,_ or _that really sucks_ is really gonna cut it this time. You're out of anything to say. 

"Dad, it's—"

"No, Thollux, don't try to tell me it'sth okay, _it isthn't okay_ ," Psii cuts you off. His hand lands on your shoulder, and that startles you, because you didn't see it coming. 

"I'm a horrible father. I've caused my own thson to go blind. I'm tho thorry, I wasth never there for you, Thol. Familiesth are thsupposed to protect each other, and Gog knowsth I couldn't even do _that_ right. I don't dethserve to be called your Dad—I hate mysthelf...I've ruined thisth family. You'd all be better off if I weren't in it—I mean, what kind of father putsth his thson in the pothsition to get hurt?"

"Dad, I—"

_"What kind of father, Thol?"_


	2. Flashback: The Ampora Mansion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sollux recalls the details of the horrific accident that left him completely sightless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if this comes off as too fast paced, there was a lot of stuff that I had to tell about, so.

On the day that it happened, you were already having a bad day. You had to take a bus out of the city and then walk two miles to the Ampora mansion for work. You had a car, you would have taken your car, if some douchewad at school earlier today hadn't found you hitting on his girlfriend. This jerk punched you in the face, knocked out a few of your teeth, and broke your glasses. You were fine, but it hurt, straining to see things without them. Your glasses, that is. You could do without your teeth, considering they were responsible for that awful lisp. But Psii had told you, _if you couldn't see, you couldn't drive_ , and you had told him to fuck off. But you'd have to take public transit anyway, until your new pair came in. 

You weren't about to miss work over it, though. You were employed by Mr. Ampora, tasked with cleaning his gigantic mansion. You were one of a handful of people hired—that was how big it was, that was how many people it took to clean that house every other week. 

Things were looking up though, when you arrived at the house a few minutes late. 

"I am leaving in a minute," Mr. Ampora declared to all the workers, "but I really need someone to unclog the drain pipe in the upstairs bathtub. I will pay an extra bonus to someone who can do that job for me."

You immediately volunteered. So did a few others. I mean, who didn't want a bonus? Plus, with the amount of days Psii had been missing work lately—well, _somebody_ had to make up the difference. 

Mr. Ampora definitely saw you with your hand raised, but he probably passed you off because you were a _teenager_ —some adult man got the job instead of you. That's what sucked about being the youngest employee there. 

Disappointed and pissed off, you grab the Swiffer duster and start cleaning one of the upstairs halls. You spot Eridan Ampora out of the corner of your eye. He was tiptoeing down the hall, precariously avoiding the sticky spots you were leaving on the floor as you cleaned. Seeing Eridan makes you 10% pissier, because you're 100% sure that he's a spoiled rich kid—and 110% sure that he's been checking out your ass ever since you started working for his father. But it didn't matter. This job paid four times as much as you would get working at Wendy's. 

Once you'd finally settled into a rhythm, Swiffering the floor, someone called you into the bathroom. The man that had volunteered to clean the drain was giving up, and he was passing the job off to you. 

"If you clear that pipe, you better let the big man know it was you," a bronze blooded woman said, having overhead their conversation. "Don't let that old man over there con your money from you, kid."

"I wasn't gonna con him," the man said in defense.

You smiled, but said nothing to either of them. They both left to move downstairs with the rest of the cleaning crew, so it was just you in the bathroom alone. You grabbed the bottle of drain cleaner from under the sink and a metal coat hanger from the closet—and climbed in the tub.

You carefully uncapped the drain cleaner fluid, and carefully poured a little bit into the drain pipe. 

You sat on the edge of the tub, waiting for the acid to settle in. This was supposed to be an easy job. You'd cleared out the old drain at home maybe twelve times. You squat in the dry tub, peering into the pipe, real close, straining to see without your glasses on. 

The air coming out of the pipe was _hot._ And something inside the pipe was _gurgling_ —this you know was _not_ supposed to happen. But before you could even get the coat hanger down, hot sludge burst out of the pipe—splashing you in the face. 

You reeled from the stinging, no, _burning_ pain of the corrosive liquid, and somehow you knew it was _eating_ through your eyes— 

_Your eyes were open_ and yet you weren't seeing anything. 

You became aware of the nauseating gases wafting from the drain, which prickled in your nose and throat. You tried to scramble out of the bathtub in case the pipe decided to explode again. 

But you'd lost your balance and tripped over the tub ledge—and then a sudden hollow pain struck you in the back of your head, for a brief moment adding to the stabbing pains in each of your eyes.

That's where your memory ends. 

They told you that you'd hit your head on the porcelain toilet, and were knocked unconscious. They told you Eridan was the one who pulled you out of the tub and dragged you out of the bathroom, away from the noxious gases before dialing 911. 

You woke up in the hospital a day later, although you didn't know that a whole day had passed back then. All you knew were those awful itchy bandages taped to your face. Your eyes were sore and sightless. Psii was mourning that he didn't understand, and poor Tuna was crying endlessly. _You_ didn't understand. The doctor eventually came in to explain tacitly that the drain cleaner you put in the pipe mixed with a different kind of drain cleaner that was already there. 

You thought back to the ass who got the cleaning gig before you. 

The doctor went on to say that a chemical reaction occurred in the pipe that caused the liquid to heat up and explode. The corrosive fluid severely damaged the tissue of your eyes. 

They said you were lucky it didn't mutilate your entire face. 

They said they didn't know if the damage would be repairable. 

They said it could have been prevented if you had been wearing some sort of protection—he pointed out that _would be the protocol_ when handling powerful household chemicals. 

"Are you inthsinuating that thisth isth my thson'sth _fault?!_ " Psii challenged the doctor. 

"Dad, he's not insinuating anything," you cut your father off before he could get himself thrown out of the hospital. 

They said three days later that the blindness was indeed permanent, because you'd contracted a dumb staph infection during your stay, which effectively wiped out the last of your sight. 

Then it was Psii's turn to cry, and Mituna's turn to not understand. You were going to have to learn how to live without sight. 

You knew that you were sitting in a hospital bed with the two of them beside you, and the doctor hovering up above. But you felt like you were falling through a vacuum. Everyone always depended on you, and eventually you knew that you would let everyone down. You couldn’t be normal for anyone anymore. That had always been your job. But now you were gonna need more help than Psii and Tuna put together. You were no longer _the normal one._

And you never would be again. 

You didn’t have time to think, "Oh, I'm never going to see again." You kept watching behind your eyes all the things that would follow, that didn’t even yet feel too, too real— 

_I'm never gonna start the car again. I'm never gonna be able to code by just looking at the screen._

—along with the fact that you couldn’t be anyone’s rock anymore— 

_I'm gonna have to start walking with a cane. I'm gonna have to learn how to read all over again, like a one sweep-old. I'm gonna have to throw out all my school notebooks, and replace them with tapes._

—as everything, everything— 

_My eyes, my face, it’s mutilated, even though I can’t see it in the mirror. I probably look like some sort of crazy freak. People are gonna put me in the same box as Terezi Pyrope._

—fades— 

_I'm gonna start to forget what Psii and Tuna look like._

—to— 

_I'll never be normal again._

—black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments at any time are greatly appreciated!


	3. The Captor House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the final chapter! Happy 4/13 everyone. Description: Sollux returns home from his hospital stay for his long awaited birthday party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the final chapter! Happy 4/13 everyone. Much thanks to anyone who has been following this story. Who knew a simple fic idea would turn out to be a 3-part PSA about drain cleaner?

You return home just in time for your birthday party, which is the afternoon you leave the hospital.

"Thstill feeling alright?" Psii says as you hear a key clicking in a lock to your left. You suppose that means you're at your front door. No one can blame you for being unsure. I mean, it _has_ been a while.

"I've kind of got a headache still. But it's fine," you say flatly. Mituna has been leading you as you walk, and his big, sweaty hand is grasped tightly around your skinny right arm. You're not about to tell him that it hurts though, because you might honestly fall flat on your face without him standing there, and you know it. 

John, Jade and Karkat are the first to arrive at your house, in order to set up for the party. John is still an idiot, Jade still exudes enough energy to power a whole city—and Karkat is still, well, Karkat.

"I don't understand why you had to buy streamers in _every fucking color_ ," Karkat gripes to John.

"Colors are nice, who doesn't like colors?" John says from above, supposedly standing on a chair, hanging them on walls. 

"Blind people, you stupid fuck," Karkat says.

John’s face goes pale. "Oh—" he says, nearly falling off the chair. He explains, "I'm so sorry Sollux, I mean, I was just planning—" 

"Don’t waste your breath putting your foot in your mouth, John," you cut him off, smirking a little. "I was color blind before I was regular blind, so I don't really miss them." Jade snickers, and Karkat suppresses a laugh, which turns into an embarrassing snort.

"You snorted," John giggles.

"You asshole," Karkat grunts.

"It kinda works, though," you say, toying with a ripped off piece of the papery-cardboard material in your hands. "I mean, decorating the house is like having a corpse party. It's more for the people who come than whoever the party is for."

Jade snickers again. "I can't believe you're comparing your birthday party to a funeral. You've been hanging around Aradia too much," she says. 

"Whatever. AA is cool."

"Is she coming today?" Karkat asks. 

"She said she would, I invited her," you respond. Aradia was easy to hang out with, and you were hoping she would come. 

You were unsure if she would, though. The rest of the people that you invited show up before she does—that would be Rose, Dave, Kanaya, Karkat, Nepeta and Terezi and her sister Latula. You felt compelled to invite Eridan on the day he came to the hospital to see if you were okay. He shows up too—even though you originally thought it would be awkward for him, seeing as he knew none of your friends. But that made quite the crowd, along with Mituna and Psii. 

Aradia shows up about an hour after the set time. Everyone is already eating and talking in the kitchen when you hear her at the door, mechanically scraping her converses on the carpet to dry them. You hear the dull plop of her little backpack into the pile of everybody else's. 

"AA, is that you? How's it going?" You have to yell to her because you don't dare venture any closer to the door. You don't have anybody to lead you, and you are low-key clinging to the hallway wall like raft in the ocean.

She pauses her scraping. "Oh! Hi. Yeah, it's me, Sollux," she says absently. "How are you doing?"

"Fine, fine," you reply. Her usually vibrant personality is a little—flat, but you don't say anything about it. "Hey, why don't you come into the kitchen and get some pizza? Everyone's sitting at the table inside."

"OK," she says. You awkwardly reach out for her arm as she approaches you, and she loops her arm into yours to get you back into the kitchen. 

You and Aradia sit down at the table, talking and munching on the snacks that Mituna had put out. After a while, Psii claps his hands together and says, "Alright. We wanna do giftsth firstht, or cake?"

"Gifts!" Nepeta chirps.

The rest of the party agrees, even Eridan, who sounds like he's smiling as he speaks lowly. Mituna leads you over to the chair at the head of the living room, and everyone else settles on the couch or on the rug.

Psii hustles in with the rustling of bags in his arms. He drops the lot near your feet, and you choose one to open first. "Who's is this?" you ask, holding it up for everyone to see.

"Mine!" responds a shrill voice, and it's Terezi's. 

You rip the paper off the small package, and try to feel the dull rectangular plastic box inside to get a clue for what it is, and find none. "What is it?"

"Braille stickers," she declares proudly. She explains, "My hive is covered in them!"

"It is," Latula confirmed. 

"You stick them on cereal boxes and stuff, so you can label which ones are which," Terezi says. 

"Wow," you say, "that's useful—thank you."

"Wait—" John says, clambering off the floor and looking at the package. "Terezi, these are regular glue dots."

"Fuck you, John, they're Braille stickers."

"They're rainbow glue dots. You have glue dots all over your house."

“Do not!”

John pushes his own present into your hands, and you open it to find a box of Legos—these little human building toys. He insists they aren't for wrigglers. The tiny pieces feel good in your hands. Mituna gets all pissy with jealousy—to which John laughs and says he'll get Tuna a box of his own when _his_ birthday rolls around in two weeks. Mituna settles to contentment. 

Dave brought some mix CDs. Eridan brought a gift card. Nepeta actually _didn't_ bring her cat, although you were half expecting her to. Maybe Mituna was a little disappointed about that.

Everyone brings you something, even though you told everyone no gifts—except for Aradia. Nobody points this out besides Mituna, who didn't think it was rude. 

Aradia probably turned red. She said in a low voice broken by embarrassment, "I left it at home."

"That's OK," you reply immediately. 

"What was it?" Terezi asks. 

"Oh—I can't tell you," she says abruptly. "—it was supposed to be a surprise."

"Oh. OK," you say mutely. 

Aradia's forgetfulness phases out of conversation as the party moves back to the kitchen for cake. Mr. Egbert dropped it off when he dropped off his son. Latula is standing behind you, helping you cut your own cake by guiding the knife in your hands.

"I'll bet that cake tastes sweeter than it used to," Terezi says through a grin. "If your other senses have started to pick up the pace."

"It kind of does," you say with a mouthful of soft yellow cake. You weren't sure that was actually happening yet, but it seemed to be. “John, tell your Dad his baking is _amazing._ ”

“Igh.”

The party ends up being more than OK. You weren't able to forget being blind, but it was still a lot of fun. It was nice to see your friends after being in the hospital for what seemed like forever.

People started trickling out at 9 pm. Karkat, Jade and John stayed longer than most, but they left around 10. The last person at the party was Aradia. She apologized to Psii, saying that her mother sometimes loses track of time, and got the end and start times of the party confused. 

"It'sth alright, Aradia," Psii said through a smile. "Don't worry, you can hang here till your Mom comesth."

"Thank you," she said mutely. She rose from the couch in your living room. "Can I help you clean up, or—"

"No, no, we've got it covered. That'sth very nice of you, though."

She sits back down next to you. When Psii returns to the kitchen, she says, "These songs should be nice. I hope I get one of these for my wriggling day. I've heard Dave's really good at mixing," she says with a grin. 

You pause. You assume she's looking at your CDs. "Oh. Yeah. I'm gonna have to get a disc drive plugin though, my computer doesn't have one," you say. 

"I have a portable CD player in my bag," Aradia offers. You know it is her mom's old one, since Aradia doesn't have any sort of MP3 player. You too are aware of what living on a single parent budget is like. "Lemme go get it, then we can check out if Dave's actually got any skills."

You smile, and let her grab her bag. When she drops it at your feet, she says, "Look for it in the big pocket, hold on, my ear buds are in my coat."

"OK," you reply. She leaves again. You go fishing around in her bag. Your hand stumbles against something distinctly rectangular. It doesn't feel like a CD player. It feels almost like glossy paper. _Wrapped._

You gingerly pull it out and inspect it with both hands. It is definitely something wrapped in smooth, shiny _wrapping_ paper.

Aradia enters the room, but stops in her tracks. 

"Um," you begin. You itch the bandages near the back of your ear. "Is this the surprise?"

"No," she says slowly. "I mean, yeah, it was supposed to be, but, um."

"You had it the whole time," you say, wishing you could see her face or know what she was thinking. You give a small laugh. "AA, Why'd you hide this, if you had it?"

"I just—" Aradia began—she sighed as she gave up trying to explain herself. "Just open it," she said irritatedly. 

"Why? I don't want to if you don't want to give it to me," you say, holding it out for her to take back. 

She leaves your arm hovering in the air. "Sollux. I'm giving it to you now. Just open it." 

You carefully tear away the paper. You feel your fingers flipping through pages, and realize you are holding a paperback book. You don't know which one. "What book is this?" you ask her. 

She takes the spot on the couch to the left of you. She sighs. "It's 1984. You know, the human sci-fi story about the overtake of technology. That one I told you you would love," she explains. "I thought instead of lending you mine, I would get you your own, since we were always talking about it. I thought it would be _nice._ "

"It _is_ nice," you say. "Thank you, AA."

"It isn't nice. You can't even use it," she says briskly. "I'm such an asshole. I bought it before you had your accident. And when you texted me telling you weren't gonna recover any of your sight—" you heard her voice waver in that same way that you'd heard 2 thousand times from your dad and Tuna, right before one of them starts crying. "It's useless now. I didn't want to give it to you in front of all your friends, and embarrass you, I'm so awful..." Aradia is far better than your father or brother at holding back tears.

"It's OK," you tell her. You feel beside you for her back and pull her in for a hug. "You wouldn’t have embarrassed me. Everyone probably would have laughed," you say giving a mute chuckle. “It’s kinda funny. The same thing happened to me. You know, my new prescription glasses came in the mail the other day." Aradia laughs—a cute little giggle through once trembling lips. "Yeah, Dad says we can return them. So I guess that's fine."

She laughs again, this time more relaxed. "I couldn't resell it before today. Once I get the money though, I'll buy you a gift card, or give you the cash, or something. I'm so sorry." She tries to take the book out of your hands, but you pull it away from her grasp.

"Don't return it. Worst case scenario I use it as firewood." you say. You open up to the first page and dramatically proclaim, "Chapter one—the bad beginning. Once there was a human named Winston Smith who grew to be massively flushed for another human named O'Brien—"

She is leaning on you, giggling hysterically. You can't stop yourself from succumbing to laughter after the first sentence. You snort mid-laugh, and she goes hysterical all over again. "You nerd, you sound like Karkat."

"Fuck you, AA."

"Fuck you! That's not even what happens," she says. 

"What page is this anyway?"

"The table of contents," she replies. Turn the page. Keep going. Keep going, keep going. There. That's the first page."

"Yeah, but on what page do they start making out?"

"Ew. You are disgusting," she says through a permanent grin. You feel her presence on your shoulder, looking over at the words in your hands. She began to read. "'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions—'"

"He was nervous because he was late for his candlelight hate date."

"Do you really wanna skip to the part where they torture him?"

"Oh. AA," you pause in fake seriousness. "I didn't know they had _that_ kind of relationship."

She slaps you lightly on the shoulder, and you laugh. "I've told you a billion times, this isn't even a romance novel!" Aradia exclaims. She continues for a while. 

"'Big Brother is watching you, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own—'Oh, hi Mituna."

"Hi, Aradia..." Mituna replies, dragging out her name. You hadn't noticed that Mituna had entered the living room. "Yeah, you two. Abthsolutely no funny business,” he says, waggling a finger the way Dad does. “I'm watching you!!"

Then he runs out, giggling like a maniac at the sight of them. 

"Your brother is adorable," Aradia remarked. 

"My brother is ridiculous. Do read on, madam," you say in an antiquated tone, tapping the page. 

Mituna screams at the two of you from the kitchen.

" _Watching you!!_ "

That earned laughter all around.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/153224031@N02/35437141853/in/dateposted-public/)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments at any time are greatly appreciated :) Art credits are myself.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments on this story are always appreciated!


End file.
